ABSTRACT
Volatile oil of traditional Chinese medicine （VOTCM） is a plant volatile component obtained through distillation or supercritical fluid extraction. The volatile oil is rich in terpenes and phenylpropanoids， with many different effect. It is not only widely used in healthcare products， but also has a variety of pharmacological effect， such as analgesia， antioxidant， antibacterial， anti-inflammatory， anti-tumor effect. Malignant tumor is an important threat to human health. At present， the drugs commonly used in clinical treatment of tumors are expensive with certain toxic and side effect. Although new treatment technologies are also being promoted step by step， they have higher treatment costs than traditional chemotherapies， and the long-term efficacy remained to be further confirmed. The effect of volatile oil of traditional Chinese medicine（TCM） on cancer is receiving more and more attention. In particular， it has a significant inhibitory effect on lung， liver， colon， and stomach cancer. Specifically， it can not only reduce the side effect of chemotherapy drugs， but also effectively prolong or stop the tumor recurrence， with special effects in treatment and adjuvant treatment. At the same time， various anti-tumor mechanisms of volatile oils have been discovered， such as inducing tumor cell apoptosis， inhibiting tumor blood vessel formation， inhibiting tumor cell proliferation， inducing tumor cell differentiation， interfering with multidrug resistance， and regulating the body's immune function. However， there are still some problems in the basic research， achievement transformation， and product development of volatile oil of TCM， which restricts its clinical and daily application. This paper summarizes the antitumor mechanism of volatile oil of TCM by consulting relevant domestic and foreign literatures， analyzes the current situation of volatile oils， and proposes improvement directions for its problems and development， in the expectation of laying the foundation for the research of volatile oil of TCM in anti-tumor research.